Cooperatives have continued to be important in the lives of people especially at the grass root level. Most notably, they help to transform the lives of the local people in the community irrespective of how huge or small it may be. A perfect example of a community based cooperative which had thrived for a lengthy period of time following its inception is the Rainbow store cooperative. This is a book store which had been run by a group of enthusiastic members of the Madison community. Rainbow bookstore boasted of a vast array of books ranging from religious, science fiction, technology, educational to general adventurous stories. The store even used to feature real life stories along with some popular magazines. It is thus safe to say that the book store had something for every reader.

Rainbow Bookstore

But, suddenly the book shop was no more. There was time when the closure of the store was announced and the store was no more shortly after that. A once thriving book shop had suddenly been turned to ruins within a short time frame. No doubt, it would be interesting to shed more light on what really led to the closure of the store. Up to this day, most people are still hazy about what really transpired in the events leading up to the closure of the store. As book store owners, it is our sincere desire to enlighten every reader on the circumstances that actually led to the eventual closure of the store.

The problems

The earliest problems that all of us witnessed were related to a drop in sales. During the course of last year, the store experienced some of its worst business days. It may even be safe to say that sales dropped drastically by over 50 % in less than six months. Immediately, it became apparent that the store was on the brink of closure if the sales did not improve in the near future.

As if the drop in sales was not enough, several financial problems surfaced. It became difficult to sustain the operations of the business including paying workers and maintaining the store’s premises. Further, paying government taxes became a huge challenge as very little money was available for such.
Competition from other book stores was also proving to be a huge challenge. The store which had been running for over 25 years was unable to cope with the competition from its rivalry book stores. `Efforts to ward off the competition had failed lamentably since the store’s financial muscle was not sound enough to accommodate any viable activities aimed at containing competition from rivals.

Steps to revamp the store

By September 2016, the store’s management had tried by all means to revamp the store.

Student Shopping at Rainbow Bookstore

All measures which had been put in place failed to yield the right results. Most notably, the store’s management tried to appeal to the community to support our cooperative book store. Customers appeared to care less when such moves were taken. Not shocking, the results that followed were devastating. On the other hand, the 50 % discount promotion which was initiated a couple of months before the store closed failed to boost sales. It was not long before our beloved cooperative book store business went tumbling down like a castle whose foundation had been eaten up by termites.

Know more about the closure of Rainbow Bookstore in our About Us section.

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Quote

“Sometimes, you read a book and it fills you with this weird evangelical zeal, and you become convinced that the shattered world will never be put back together unless and until all living humans read the book.”
― John Green, The Fault in Our Stars